Volume 1 Chapter 15: Good Men Are Like Finding Gold in Shit
After accompanying Grandma Su to a welcome dinner for Qin Yi, Qin Yi left Qingshi.
After seeing Qin Yi off, Shen He bought half a watermelon at an imported fruit shop outside the residential area.
As soon as she entered the apartment and saw the tidy and organized space, she exclaimed, "Grandma, you're my Snail Girl."
Grandma Su had told Shen He the story of the Snail Girl and knew Shen He was praising her for being hardworking and virtuous.
Grandma Su spat in disgust, "I'm not as foolish as her. A proper fairy, yet she ran off to do laundry, cook, and serve as a slave for a man."
Thinking of her own past mistakes, Grandma Su couldn't help but admonish Shen He earnestly: "Miaomiao, you worked hard to get into university and started your own studio. Now you must focus on your career and realize your own life's value. Don't be as foolish as the Snail Girl, understand?"
A little fairy, yet rushing to cook and serve a man—if she were the Snail Girl's parents, she'd be furious enough to spit blood.
"Don't worry, Grandma. I'll never let love cloud my judgment." The painful experiences of her past life were still vivid in her mind, and Shen He had no intention of becoming love-struck again.
Looking at Shen He's young and beautiful face, Grandma Su seemed to see her own younger self.
"When I was young, I fell in love at first sight with your grandfather and rushed to marry him like a lovesick fool. But how did he treat me?"
Mentioning Shen He's grandfather made Grandma Su grit her teeth in anger.
Shen He's grandfather was named Shen Zhenkun, the only university student in the village.
During his second year of university, Shen Zhenkun's father died unexpectedly, leaving behind only a partially paralyzed mother.
With no other choice, Shen Zhenkun dropped out of school to return home and care for his mother, an act that made him famous throughout the surrounding villages as a devoted son.
After Shen's mother passed away, Shen Zhenkun was introduced by a matchmaker to Su Jin, the daughter of the village doctor Su Qi.
Su Qi and his daughter were educated youth who had come from City A. Though their family was poor, Su Qi was a cultured man skilled in medicine.
Su Jin was also a stunning beauty with bright eyes and white teeth.
Shen Zhenkun was very satisfied with Su Jin, and the two married smoothly. Within just a year of marriage, Su Jin gave birth to a son, Shen Guanghui.
As the only university student in the village, Shen Zhenkun had lofty ambitions. As soon as the child turned one month old, he went alone to the city to seek his fortune.
He stayed away for five years, returning only once when his father-in-law, Su Qi, fell ill and passed away.
One summer, five years later, Su Jin was carrying her medical kit to visit a patient in the neighboring village. As she passed a cornfield, she was dragged into it by a bachelor from the neighboring village.
Su Jin used all her strength to knock the man unconscious and escape. When the villagers saw her running out of the cornfield with disheveled clothes, they all believed she had cheated with another man.
Despite Su Jin's repeated explanations, no one was willing to believe her.
Before long, news of Su Jin's alleged affair reached Shen Zhenkun's ears.
On a hot afternoon, Shen Zhenkun returned to his hometown.
In the presence of the village party secretary and the entire production team, Shen Zhenkun said with deep sorrow: "Su Jin, your affair with Xie Da from the neighboring village has made me the laughingstock of the village. I can no longer hold my head high in my hometown."
"However, I left for the city to work and was away for five years, leaving you alone to care for the child. I am also at fault. What's done is done, and saying more will only disgrace both of us."
"Su Jin, I'll leave the house and land of the Shen family to you, but Guanghui is a child of the Shen family. He must come with me."
"Let's get a divorce!"
Shen Zhenkun was famously filial throughout the region. His demand for a clean break, asking only for custody of their son, seemed to everyone in the village like Su Jin was getting the better deal.
Poor Su Jin had no way to defend herself. Though she had never been unfaithful, she was branded a loose woman and ended up divorced and losing her son.
After the divorce, Shen Zhenkun took Shen Guanghui far away.
Within half a year, Su Jin heard news that Shen Zhenkun had remarried. His new wife was the daughter of a steel mill director, surnamed Zhong, and also a college graduate…
Shen He knew all this.
But what came next was even more shocking. Su Jin told Shen He, "Fourteen years ago, Xie Da went up the mountain to gather firewood and fell, bleeding profusely from his head. He had no money for treatment, so people carried him to my doorstep, begging me to heal him."
"He was the man who ruined my life. Even though I'm a doctor, and doctors are supposed to be compassionate, I couldn't bring myself to save him. Only when he saw I was truly heartless and would let him die did Xie Da finally tell me the truth about what happened back then."
Even after all these years, revisiting the past, Su Jin's eyes still brimmed with bitter, angry tears.
Gritting her teeth, Su Jin cursed, "It turns out Shen Zhenkun had long had his eye on that Zhong woman. He wanted both a good reputation and a bright future. Unable to find a reason to divorce me, he deliberately sought out Xie Da and instructed him to find an opportunity to tarnish my virtue!"
"This is the man I once loved. To climb the social ladder, he deliberately had someone defile his own wife's honor."
"He enjoyed wealth and luxury, while I became known far and wide as a loose woman." Thinking of all the grievances she had endured in her life, Su Jin wished she could dig up Shen Zhenkun's grave and whip his corpse.
"Still, it gives me some comfort to know that bastard was tormented by illness until he was barely human before he died."
But that small comfort was far from enough to make up for the injustice Su Jin had suffered.
Listening to Su Jin recount her ordeal as an outsider, Shen He felt heartache, let alone Su Jin herself.
Shen He hugged her grandmother's shoulders sympathetically and asked, "Grandma, why didn't you ever tell me about this before?"
"You were too young back then; it wasn't appropriate. But now you're grown up and in a relationship yourself, there's nothing that can't be said."
"Miaomiao." Su Jin's tone turned serious as she warned Shen He, "I admit there are still good men in this world. But the chance of us meeting one is like panning for gold in a pile of shit."
Crude as the words were, the truth in them was undeniable, and Shen He fully agreed with her grandmother's view.
"When you have time, bring that Mu Tingyun over for a meal. I'll help you size him up. Whether he's dog shit or fool's gold, we need to see him to know."
Shen He smiled mysteriously and said, "When the time is right, I'll bring him to meet you."
But she knew that day would never come.
In her past life, she had held a wedding with Mu Tingyun. In this life, she would personally hold his funeral.
Shen He got up and went to the kitchen to cut a plate of watermelon, bringing it over for Su Jin to taste. "Grandma, try this watermelon. It's really sweet."
Su Jin picked up a piece of watermelon and suddenly remembered the wild mushrooms still needed sorting.
"Miaomiao, sort out the wild mushrooms and put them in the fridge to eat slowly. Oh, and do you want to send some to the elders in the Mu family?"
Remembering that the Shen family was also in Qingshi, Su Jin hesitantly added, "…What about the Shen family? Should we send some there too?"
Shen Zhenkun had betrayed her, but the Shen family were, after all, Shen He's relatives.
Su Jin hoped Shen He would have a few more relatives, so that when she passed away, Shen He wouldn't be left all alone.
"The Mu family is out of the question." Shen He would rather use wild mushrooms to make soup for stray dogs than give a single bite to the Mu family.
As for the Shen family…
"Let's forget about the Shen family too."
Shen Zhenkun had caused her grandmother to suffer her whole life. If Shen He really took the mushrooms her grandmother had worked so hard to pick and gave them to the Shen family to eat, that would be like rubbing salt in her grandmother's wounds.
Noticing the three wild matsutake mushrooms as thick as a forearm in the basket, Shen He suddenly recalled a pair of cold, lonely eyes.
"Grandma, I want to give two of these wild matsutake mushrooms to someone."
"To whom?" Wild matsutake mushrooms were a delicacy. Whoever Shen He wanted to give them to must hold special significance for her.
Shen He instinctively said, "An elder…"
She had intended to say "an elder," but for some reason, she changed her mind at the last moment. "A friend."
Su Jin gave her a suspicious look but didn't press further. "Give them if you want. They're yours anyway. What about the remaining one? Should we give it to your business partner?"
"Jun Lin?" Shen He curled her lip. "He's like a wild boar that can't appreciate fine grain—giving it to him would be a waste."
"Then do as you see fit."
"Grandma, you rest. While it's still early, I'll go now!"
Shen He picked two wild matsutake mushrooms, placed them in a small woven basket, and set off to see Song Jingcheng.